


Orange.

by Lauren_is_a_moron



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017), Riverdale (TV 2017) RPF
Genre: I watched The Darkest Minds lmao, tHIS IS SO SHORT
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 16:40:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15733359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lauren_is_a_moron/pseuds/Lauren_is_a_moron
Summary: The subject of watching The Darkest Minds movie, and then about fifty cast videos in a row.





	Orange.

**Author's Note:**

> the film flopped, but the books will forever be in my heart. 
> 
> Liam and Ruby own my soul.

Lili Reinhart was a quiet girl. She usually kept to herself, hiding behind her long blonde hair that was way overdue a cut. She wasn't the type of kid to freak out, especially in public. Instead she waited until she was home, before she really let it all out. But when a girl with long red hair named Poppy Harries collapsed in the school cafeteria, Lili finally seemed to break from her self-conscious state, and join the mass of screaming kids. Nobody realized Polly was dead at first. The girl had been sitting there talking loudly to the other kids on the table; a conversation Lili wasn't invited to join. Lili silent as usual, nibbling on some fruit pieces her mom had packed. There was a book in her lap; The Golden Compass. It was a dogeared copy, the pages curled and yellowed with age. It had been her mother's when she was Lili's age.

Lili had been embroiled in Lena's world, wrapped up in the fantasy of magical creatures and worlds. That was until a boy with a shock of dark brown hair, sitting across from her, who had until then been smashing the buttons of his Nintendo DS way too hard. Every so often he'd hiss out a breath and clench his jaw, muttering under his breath. Lili detected an accent, but she wasn't sure which one. The boy had transferred to her fifth grade class a few months ago, and was mostly ignored, because of his 'funny voice'.

The kid was barely called in class, and she was always daydreaming anyway, so she was yet to learn his name. DS Boy had been cursing and grumbling to himself all lunchtime, his eyes glued to the screen. Judging from the battle cries screaming from the speakers, he wasn't very good. Lili had been trying to ignore him, but his frustrated cries every few minutes meshed together with Polly's excited garbling, was starting to hurt her head. And she barely got headaches. But then Polly had just - stopped. Which might have been a miracle. Because when she went silent, so did the boy. There was a loud crack, and when Lili finally looked up curiously, the strange boy's DS had slipped from his grasp, and was faced down on the marble floor. But he was too busy staring wide eyed across the table, his mouth hanging open, to care about the sad demise of his handheld.

Because Polly Harries had simply fallen flat on her face. Lili hadn't see it happen, but clearly the boy with the DS had. He had watched, brown eyes wide, as poor Polly's eyes had rolled into the back of her skull, before the girl had face-planted the table, startling the dozen kids crowded around, halting conversations and chatter.

At first Lili had thought she had fainted. Polly had been waving around her peanut butter and jelly sandwich while she gushed enthusiastically about the latest iPhone she had gotten for her tenth birthday. If Lili asked her parents for an iPhone, they'd roll their eyes and tell her to go and play with her dolls. Which wasn't a bad thing. She wasn't interested in iPhone's. She was perfectly happy playing imaginary tea parties with her dolls and stuffed animals.

Polly Harries had been describing a dress up app, which seemed to excite her to no end, since her sandwich was dripping all over the table.

"It's like Star doll! But like a million times better! You can dress up famous people, and it's so cool-"

When the girl had fallen silent, Lili had figured the girl had stopped to take a bite of her PB&J. But-no. Polly Harries had simply flopped onto the table, as if her puppet strings had been severed.

"Polly?" A girl who's name Lili was sure was Camila, or Cami, or something like that-  had leaned across the table, her eyes wide and fearful. Up until then, Camila had been making a huge deal of spilling Nutella down her denim jacket. But when Polly had fell, the girl's expression had crumpled, her voice softening into a quiet murmur.

Camila was tiny, with golden brown skin and short black hair she usually had in plaits. Sniffling quietly, like she was trying hard to suppress a frightened scream, the small girl poked Polly once, and then twice, As if she was playing a game. And then Camila stumbled backwards with a cry, falling on her back. "She's not moving!" she squeaked. And that's when all hell broke loose. Miss Pearson, the class's teacher had rushed to Polly's aid, pressing her ear to the girl's powder blue t-shirt. Her grim expression when she looked up confirmed it.

Polly was dead. The girl was sprawled out, her limbs limp, her tangled red spread around her like a halo. Lili could feel herself start to hyperventilate. DS boy looked like he was about to vomit, his expression crinkled with confusion and horror. Camila had already made a quick getaway, pushing her way through the crowd of kids gathering around Polly. Lili stayed completely still. Her eyes were stinging, and before she knew it, hot tears were rolling down her cheeks, and suddenly it was hard to breathe. Lili could feel herself backing away, her chest aching. She knew she was screaming too. But she couldn't hear herself. She felt like she was underwater. Polly was dead. Polly was really dead.

Miss Pearson was screaming into her phone, and more and more teachers were running in, trying to calm down twenty six screaming ten year olds. Lili was left standing there frozen, unable to breathe no matter how hard she tried. She felt like she had swollen a full Popsicle. "Get back!" Miss Pearson was yelling at the kids. She had pulled Polly into her arms bridal style before laying the girl on her back. The paramedics arrived quickly, swarming around the fallen girl. But it was too late for Polly.  She was pronounced dead a few minutes later.

Lili had been trembling, her mind spinning, a dull pain thrumming across the back of her skull. It felt like there an electric current in the air, sparking, sizzling like a live wire. Someone grabbed her hand in chaos, and when she looked up, still sobbing, golden strands of her hair sticking to her face; DS Boy. The kid with the funny voice, the weird accent, was standing by her side. He too was shaking. But he squeezed her hand, which lifted the weights from her chest. Among the crowd of screeching kids, there was only her and the boy.

He didn't let go of her hand until his father arrived, swooping him up into a tight hug, pulling the boy away, before she could thank him for his company.

_Or ask his name._

Before she knew it, Lili's own mother was at her side, grasping her hand for dear life. At that point, Lili had thought it would just be Polly. That the girl had simply dropped dead out of sheer bad luck. But by the time it began to dawn on her that something was very wrong with her class, half of the fifth grade was dead.

There was a virus apparently going around, spread by the elements. It only seemed to effect kids her age, killing them with barely any symptoms. At home the TV and internet were out of bounds, and Lili spent half of her days with a thermometer sticking out of her mouth. A few months later, she was one of the last kids standing. Every time she visited the doctor, he would ask her weird questions that she wasn't sure how to answer.

"Lili, can you do anything-" Doctor Wilson had paused, struggling how to spit out the question. "Can you do anything strange, hmm? Is there anything you're not telling us?"

There were the headaches. But Lili was far too scared to mention them. The street she lived on was desolate of kids her age. With them being either buried six foot in the ground, or being dragged into black vans in the middle of the night. So she didn't say anything, even when Lili knew the headaches weren't normal. So far she had been able to hide them from her mother, but it was getting harder and harder. It felt like a metal vice was tightening around her skull. Getting progressively more and more compact until- well, she wasn't sure.

_Was her brain going to explode?_

A week after the last kid on her street had died, Lili's mother took the girl to her usual scheduled doctor's appointment. But this time it was different. When she walked into the waiting room, there were a small handful of surviving kids standing silently in a long line.

When Lili's mother had tried to join her, she had been ushered away, with dozens of other confused parents by official looking soldiers with the US army badge stamped on their chest. Lili had been too scared to try and call for her mother, or struggle out of the man's grip when he shoved her into the line of kids.

One by one, kids were lead into a small doctor's office, and the door was slammed in the kid's faces. Except something was wrong. Kids went through the door- but they didn't come out. Almost as if the room itself was swallowing them up. Lili stood completely still, her breathing shallow. The dull throbbing in her head was getting worse.

Time seemed to fly by, and before she knew it, Lili was the next kid to go in. Her head felt like it was about to explode. When her name was called, she moved to walk into the room, and found Doctor Wilson with that same shark smile. Lili nearly jumped out of her skin when she crossed the threshold. A number of kids in her class were standing against the back wall looking sullen, their arms pinned behind their backs. There were only six of them, the rest were nowhere to be seen. There had been at least twenty kids lining up outside.

Lili automatically recognised two of them. _DS Boy._ The kid with the funny accent. The boy who had stayed with her the day of Polly Harries' death. He was staring back at her, his eyes wide, his dark brown hair nestled under a small knitted purple beanie. The kid looked like he wanted to say something, but was afraid of opening his mouth.

Standing next to him was a girl. Camila. Another KID from her class, and that fateful day. She stuck out like a sore thumb with bright red ribbons in messy pigtails. There was another boy huddled into Camila. He had scruffy black hair and piercing blue eyes that felt like they were puncturing her chest. It wasn't until she was frowning at the boy's black shirt, did she realize something was stamped in huge bold letters on his chest in what looked like paint.

 **B L U E.** Lili cocked her head, her gaze travelling to the others. DS Boy had **G O L D** etched onto his batman t-shirt, and Camila; **R E D.**

She looked terrified. Unlike the others, her colour had been sprayed in huge letters, scrawled like a hyperactive toddler.

"Lili!" Doctor Wilson smiled brightly. "I know you're frightened, but this is just a routine check up, okay? If you'd like to sit down please."

"But..." Lili fidgeted on the heels of her ballet flats, her voice soft. She could barely speak. "What about them?" 

"Don't mind them," the doctor's tone darkened. "If all is well and good, you'll be going home, and those little freaks will be going far, far away."

 There was a collective hiss from the kids backed against the wall.

"We're right here you know!" The boy standing next to Camila hissed.

"Shut it." Doctor Wilson growled at the boy, who only glared back. 

"Lili." The Doctor cleared his throat. "Sit down please."

Shaking uncontrollably, Lili did just that, sitting on the edge of the reclined leather bed covered in thin paper sheets that crinkled when she slumped down reluctantly.

Doctor Wilson grabbed a clipboard and sat behind what looked like a fancy laptop. "Now, young lady," he said. "You might know about the nasty virus that's been sweeping the country right? A number of your classmates have unfortunately-"

"Yes." Lili whispered, before he could finish his sentence. She clenched her fists in her lap. Doctor Wilson nodded, his grey eyes stuck to the screen he was frowning at.

"Okay. So I'm going to scan your brain," When Lili's eyes widened, the doctor chuckled. "Don't worry! It won't hurt, I promise."

She definitely didn't trust the man's smile when he lowered a mechanical contraption in front of her eyes. "Rest your chin on the plastic, please."

It was like having an eye test, except twenty times more terrifying. When Lili tried to shuffle back, Doctor Wilson grabbed her shoulders firmly, so she couldn't move.

"Stay still." Doctor Wilson said. "Now, if you're clear Lili, you shouldn't light up any colour on my screen, okay? And even if you do, I'm sure you'll be a gree-" Doctor Wilson drifted off when the bright monitor in front of him flashed a deep, dangerous Orange. Lili stiffened when the man straightened up and shook his head. "Orange." he said softly, his eyes darkening. The warm smile which had previously been plastered over his lips, had been completely wiped off. In its place was a scowl.

"Orange!" Doctor Wilson yelled. Before Lili knew what was happening, the man was grabbing her, and shoving her to the back of the room. She hit the wall hard, falling onto her knees. Doctor Wilson yanked her up quickly. "Stand up straight, girl!"

Lili stood frozen solid, her heart hammering. She could feel the other kid's stares protruding into her. She'd been shoved into the kid with the attitude. He backed away from her, as if she was carrying the plague.

Doctor Wilson retrieved a can of spray paint, and she shivered when he sprayed the front of her favourite pink dress.  Part of her wondered if her mom would care that the awful had ruined it. When the doctor was done, she stared down at the tainted pink material. A word had been labelled in huge letters like Camila.

**O R A N G E.**

Orange. Lili Reinhart didn't even know what was wrong with her, and she had already been labelled like the others.

_Orange._

**Author's Note:**

> Leave kudos if you liked! I'd love turn this into a proper fic if you guys like it lmao


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